Zusman: “There must, in your shop, be — you must have wasted several hours discussing what do you think is going to happen at the Post. There’s a theory that I think is absurd that he’s going to use the Post delivery trucks to start delivering books. My guess is that it’ll go the other way. One of the questions is, obviously, is he going to speed up the end of print at The Post ….”

Evans: “…Who knows what Bezos is going to see when he starts looking at the balance sheets of The Post? I have friends who have businesses where Bezos is an investor — he has a huge portfolio, has picked some really good companies, obviously has figured out economies of scale at Amazon that are mind-boggling in all sorts of dimensions, from servers to books to whatever. So I’m pretty excited for the competition. I think it’s going to be great to have somebody who understands consumption at a level he does, and ideally he’s going to push the Post in a way that’s going to make them really fun to compete with.”

NPR announced today that Paul G. Haaga, Jr., vice chair of the radio network’s board, will serve as acting president and CEO. It also said in its press release:

The [fiscal year 2014] budget includes operating and investment revenues of $178.1 million, expenses of $183 million, and an operating cash deficit of $6.1 million, or 3 percent of revenues. As part of the strategy to eliminate the deficit and lower ongoing expenses, NPR will offer a voluntary buyout plan broadly across the organization that seeks to reduce staffing levels by approximately 10 percent.

With about 840 employees, NPR is looking to cut 84 people. That’s one of the largest staff reductions in the organization’s history, reports Paul Farhi.

Film critic Leonard Maltin did a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) this week and was asked: “Did the creators of South Park offer you the role to play yourself [at right] in the Mecha-Streisand episode?”

Maltin: “No, I only found out about the South Park appearance two weeks before it aired…and even that came from a press release, not from the show itself. But I was delighted with the result, and they still repeat that episode all the time. I even got to meet Isaac Hayes (Chef) some years later and hear him say my name out loud — in person.”

A young film critic asked Maltin for career advice.

Maltin: “I don’t know what prospects there are for making a living in this already-specialized field nowadays, with newspapers folding (and firing critics) and people who do have jobs clinging to them for dear life. The Internet is wide open, of course, but there aren’t many established sites that pay a living wage and that’s the real challenge. I’ve been awfully lucky in my career, but I’m not immune to these changes, and I’m glad I’m not starting out today. That said, if you love to write about movies, don’t let anyone deter you — you just may have to do it as an avocation rather than a full-time job.”

* A retired UPS exec buys Maxim magazine. (adweek.com) | (adage.com)* Tina Brown’s memoir, “Media Beast,” will be published in early 2016. (Re The Daily Beast: “I just felt that my job was done” there, she says.) (nytimes.com)
* The Daily Beast’s fate will be decided by the first week of October. (capitalnewyork.com)
* Tina Brown’s charity raised over $1 million, but gave out just $10,000. (nypost.com)
* “Tina Brown died as Beast honcho because she treated it like a 90s magazine,” writes Choire Sicha. (theawl.com)
* A blogger’s beef with BuzzFeed is settled with a donation to charity. (revdancatt.com)
* Paul Krugman: I have better things to do with my time than tweet. (nytimes.com)
* Early Twitter investor Jeff Bezos is about to get even richer. (blogs.wsj.com)
* Departing NUVO editor recalls the feces he got in the mail. (nuvo.net)
* The National Book Awards’ annual “5 Under 35” list is made up of all women writers. (wyomingpublicmedia.org)* It sounds like we’ll be seeing a lot of orange on the “Today” show. (mediabistro.com)
* Rem Rieder: Kudos to New York Times for running Putin’s piece. (usatoday.com)
* Time managing editor Rick Stengel is at least the 15th journalist to join the Obama administration. (theatlanticwire.com)
* Gawker editor John Cook is trying to get records about Bill O’Reilly’s wife’s fling with a cop. (muckrock.com)
* Readers of UK’s Sun “strongly support” topless models on Page 3. (theguardian.com)